Student Guide Corner

Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog entry describing my discussion each semester with my juniors about the best book that they have ever read. In the blog, I explained that I thought education needed to be more than just conveying material. It also needs to be about helping students to broaden their horizons and become better rounded members of our society. If we are just going to teach stuff, computers can probably do that better than we can. I got quite a number of emails about that post � most were positive although some were a bit mystified as to why I would do that in an accounting class. Heck, I would do that in any class. So, okay, let�s take this thought a step further. What is your favorite class memory of the spring semester? I assume virtually everyone who reads this post is a teacher. What is your favorite teaching memory from the spring? (If you don�t have one, you probably need to make some serious changes.) One of my favorite memories is of a photograph (now taped to m...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about sending out an initial email to start reprogramming my students to be the type of students that I wanted them to be.  Below is the second step in this process.   It is my second email to the students for the fall semester.   I emailed this note to my students this morning. To: Accounting 302 Students From: JH Okay, I�m sending out a bunch of material to you folks occasionally over the course of the summer. You already have the course outline and I assume you have looked over that pretty carefully by now. Attached is something entirely different. Everyone knows this class is challenging and that making an A takes an excellent effort. I want to help you understand (before we get started) what you need to do in order to do well in this course. So, every semester, I ask the 11 � 25 percent of the students who make an A to write a paragraph or two to explain how they managed to do so well. I cut and paste all the student responses into ...

Before I start today, I want to wish everyone in the US a very happy July 4.   Politically, we all tend to fuss and fight way too much but I think we can all agree that we are so incredibly lucky to live in a country where we can celebrate our freedom, liberty, and independence.   For that reason, every day around here should be July 4. ** If you have ever been at one of my teaching presentations, you know that a main theme (obsession) of mine is that you have to reprogram your students to do what you want them to do. They have already been in school for many years and most have picked up sloppy habits and poor attitudes. Students are very much a product of the educational system; they are very well-trained, but often trained to be bad students. I believe it is the teacher�s job to start the reprograming process as quickly as possible. For example, my first class in the fall is on August 27. I sent my students an email back in April suggesting some things they could ...

If you have read this blog for very long, you know that I often argue that college teachers have become obsessed with teaching stuff and less interested in developing the student as a whole person. Should we care if a student becomes a brilliant scholar but then leads a miserable life because he or she simply doesn�t know how to live? Well, I think so. I could give several examples of what I do in my classes beyond teaching stuff but here is one of my favorites. My primary course is Intermediate Accounting II which covers some of the most complex material at any university. For nearly 20 years, about half way through the semester, I give my students a required assignment. I ask them to consider all the books they have ever read in their entire lives and pick the �best book you�ve ever read.� Then, they have to write a paragraph or two to describe why they picked that book. Over the years, I have had some of the most fascinating essays submitted. Obviously, I want the students to think ...

Several weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking to 70 teachers or so at the Kentucky Accounting Educators� Forum. At one point in that presentation, I made a comment that working with students who can often be incredibly lazy is a real challenge for every teacher. My guess is that every teacher has mumbled similar words over the years. Later that day, Randy Hahm who is on the faculty at Kentucky State drove me to the airport. On the way, Randy told me about one of his favorite quotes from Zig Ziglar, the world famous motivational speaker: �There�s no such thing as a lazy person; he�s either sick or uninspired.� I don�t remember much else about that day but those few words have stuck with me since that car trip. My students rarely appear sick. So, whenever I�m dissatisfied with their efforts, is it laziness or is lack of inspiration? Lazy or uninspired? On the surface, you might ask what difference does that distinction make? I think it makes an important difference as you think abou...

I am always a bit amazed by how many readers we have on this blog. I never expected to get to 1,000 and we have now had (as of 8 minutes ago) 54,309 page views. Many readers are accounting profs but a lot teach all kinds of other things. I am busy so I rarely pay attention to which blog entries get a lot of readership and which get less. However, because of an unrelated project, I had to go back a few days ago and look at all the entries to date and noted the number of hits for each. Most got hundreds, some got thousands. However, the following entry (from May 30, 2010) only had 14 hits. 14??? Heck, some of these entries get 14 hits in the first two minutes. I�m not sure why no one read this entry because (even rereading it today) I think it raises a valid question as to what you actually want to be as a college prof. I especially liked the comment about the baseball team needing different types of players. Are you in an environment where different talents and roles are recognized? So,...

Occasionally, someone will ask me to give them my number one piece of advice for becoming a better teacher. Teaching is such a complex art that I really think that is close to impossible. However, I do think there is one thing that every teacher (and I do mean every teacher) should do that will help them immediately to become a better teacher. Can you believe it? I�m almost guaranteeing you success with just one piece of advice. Every teacher should get a reality check by enrolling as a student each year in a class in something about which they have no real knowledge. In other words, they should walk around to the other side of the desk and put themselves into the student role just as a reminder of how it feels to be the struggling one. I don�t mean for a history teacher to take another history class. There�s no benefit. I don�t mean for an English teacher to take a class in poetry. I mean for a history teacher or an English teacher to take a class in quantum mechanics. Two weeks ago, ...